William helping the Church

• Bishops

  • One Anglo-Saxon Bishop left by 1080
  • William appointed Lanfranc as Archbishop of Canterbury, replacing Stigand - in order to achieve William's reform
• Architecture

  • Churches and Cathedrals were rebuilt in the Romanesque style
• Organisation


  Church was given a clear structure

  • Dioceses
  • Archdeaconries
  • Deaneries

  New cathedrals were built in important locations such as Coventry, Salisbury and Lincoln
• Legal Issues

  • In 1076, the Council of Winchester ordered only the Church can try Clergy
  • William reintroduced the "Peter's Pence" - a one pence tax towards the Pope
• Priests

  • Anglo-Saxon priests remained in power, and despite the attempts for reform, remained married